


The High Priest of the Taint

by Toshi_Nama



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 06:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14159142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshi_Nama/pseuds/Toshi_Nama





	1. Chapter 1

The voice, powerful, smooth, cracked, slipped into her dreams again.   _ ‘You have been difficult to find, among all the other singers.’ _

Alissa was no Dreamer, but this was also no ordinary dream.  She felt it through her blood, just as she had dreams of the Archdemon, six years ago.  Seven, now?  She tried to focus,  _ in and out,  _ and gradually the mist around her shaped and cleared.  Hazel eyes looked into...hazel eyes.  She ignored, for the moment, the twisted form coming into shape around them.   _ ‘I did not expect to be sought.’ _

There was the sensation of restless movement.   _ ‘What has happened to this world?  I hear only whispers of corruption, of madness and death.  Yet not everything has corrupted?’ _

_ ‘No, not everything.  Not most.  The corruption, the Taint - the world believes it was the Maker’s punishment against the Seven who entered the Golden City...sin made physical.  It almost destroyed the world, when the Archdemon Dumat rose and led the Tainted hordes.  Some learned how to control the Taint, use it to stop the tide of darkness.’   _ She kept things vague, but tried to answer the question.  She was tired of lies, but what truth to share with this thing of her dreams, the thing she’d sent Alistair to investigate?

Sharp, pointed fingers curled, around and..around his wrists, to the back of his hand as he clenched fists.  His eyes spat hate.   _ ‘You lie.  The Taint was not us.  The corruption was THERE.  It filled the City that was supposed to be golden, filled the uncaring cavern we were cast into.’ _

_ ‘I do not lie.’   _ She wasn’t sure she could, not here, not to the creature who was made of Tained flesh, whose voice echoed in her bones, through the song she could hear if she concentrated on the corruption inside her.   _ ‘I speak of what is told.  You were there?’ _

__ Anger, pride, betrayal.  ‘ _ I was the Conductor!  I was promised - we were all promised - powers to wake the Old Gods from their slumber.  They whispered, as they went silent.  Not the silence of Dumat, powerful, heavy,  _ present  _ in my bones, but an echoing emptiness.’ _

__ _ ‘The same emptiness you say you found.’ _

__ _ ‘Yes, little singer.’ _

__ She shivered.   _ ‘Why do you call me that?  I do not Call through the Taint, I am no god, no Tainted Archdemon.’ _

__ The betrayal, the emptiness of loss slid into an expression of...amusement?  The tense lines around his eyes relaxed slightly, and the lids opened.   _ ‘You do not know, or you lie.  And I think you have not lied.’ _

__ She woke with a start.  Peeling out of her sweat-soaked sheets, she paced the still-cold floor of her room.  The snow had melted.  You could smell the change of the season, even if all that met her eyes were winter-dead branches, skeletal and reaching up for life.  “Alistair, what have I sent you up against?”  And what did the creature mean, when it called her a singer?  She grabbed pen and paper, and wrote to Morrigan.  Perhaps her sister-in-spirit could help decipher this.  She couldn’t share with anyone else, not with Alistair gone.


	2. Chapter 2

Each dream, the mists cleared more quickly.  She focused her will, using them to create a wall of fog behind her.   _ I am no Dreamer, but I remember seeing the Archdemon’s Horde through the Taint.  I will not risk my brothers and sisters.  _  The creature who spoke with her did not seem to object.  All she could do was hope her efforts worked.

_ ‘You do not fear me.’   _ He seemed surprised.

She shrugged slightly, her eyes meeting his.   _ ‘You have done nothing for me to fear.  Words, exchanged in dreams.  SHOULD I fear?’ _

__ _ ‘The others do.  They fear the unknown, the undying, the truth I can bring.  They fear the song whispering along their bones.’ _

__ _ ‘I am not them.’ _

__ _ ‘What are you then, little singer?’ _

__ She pondered.   _ ‘I am a person, a mage...or was.  I believe I still am, despite the corruption.’   _ A pause as she listened to her heart beat.  Once.  Twice.   _ ‘What are you?’ _

__ He blinked slowly as he debated with himself the answer.   _ ‘A man, a mage...although I left personhood behind long ago to follow my god.’ _

__ _ ‘What do you mean?’ _

__ He touched the crystals of his face with a single nail.   _ ‘Devotion, and lyrium, and ritual.  The High Priests of the gods make sacrifices.  We become more than human, to hear their words, to have the power to fill their temples.  That is why we are worshipped, revered, feared.  Few can walk away from their humanity, even when called by a god.’ _

__ She tipped her head, considering his words.   _ ‘You are right on that much.  Even for everything they hold dear, few are willing to sacrifice themselves to corruption, mutilation or even transformation.’ _

__ _ ‘And yet, you and your ilk did.’ _

__ She shrugged.   _ ‘Many cannot.’ _

__ _ ‘You and your ilk did.’ _  His voice pressed her.

_ ‘We did.’ _


	3. Chapter 3

_ ‘Why do you say the gods sent you to the Maker’s seat?’ _

__ _ ‘Because they did, little singer.’ _

__ _ ‘How did you know?’  _  This time, it was she who pressed.

_ ‘Your question is pointless.  We HEARD.  To be a High Priest is to give up your name, become their vessel, their entry into the waking world.  We knew.  All seven of us.  They followed me.  The Augur found the place.  The Madman, the method.  The Forgewright, the sigil that must be built out of people and land, into the air and the bedrock itself.  The Watchman, how to ward and focus our efforts.  The Appraiser, enough blood to power the ritual the Architect devised.  The Seven did not work together, only for the highest of feasts and in the most limited of ways.  We heard.  We knew.’   _ His eyes were slitted in fury, but most did not seem directed at her.   _ ‘And there was nothing, and the gods went silent.’ _

_ ‘Did they lie?’ _

__ _ ‘NO!  Dumat would not lie to his priest!  What benefit?  They told us how to free them from their waking dreams, how to gain power to unlock their prisons and join them in godhood.’ _

__ _ ‘Then why?’ _

He stopped, and the cage of his shoulders shifted.   _ ‘I do not know.  I only know it was empty.  And the gods went silent, and the Empire fell.  And now, no god will answer prayers, no god will act to separate the righteous from those who should be destroyed.’ _

__ _ ‘And Taint, somehow released from that journey, almost destroyed everything.’   _ His eyes focused on her again, and she realized she’d spoken it.  Thought, speech...how different were they, in these dreams with the common corruption singing between them? 

_ ‘People need something greater to follow.’ _

__ _ ‘People have managed for a thousand years, following a dream that does not answer.  I have seen darkness.  I have seen faith and miraculous things.  All without intervention from a god.’ _

__ _ ‘It is not enough.  And you have no grounds to speak, little singer.’ _

__ _ ‘Why not?’ _

__ His hazel eyes, in a warped face.  Crystals flared red over an emaciated, distorted frame.   _ ‘Foolish girl, did you think I could not see?  I am the Conductor.  The High Priest of a god your kind killed.  Do you think I can’t smell god-blood in you, along with the Taint?  Blood, and the gods, and ritual magic.  The two threads, bound together.  Who but a High Priest could manage that, even if the gods have gone silent?’ _

__ She shivered.   _ ‘I am no priest.  I claim no such mantle.’ _

__ _ ‘And yet you use the ritual.  And yet, you have changed it, made it your own somehow.  You discovered the power, and used it to create and enslave.’ _

__ _ ‘NO!  I would never enslave.  That is not what power is for.  Protect, guide, build - but not enslave.’ _

__ His laughter burst through.   _ ‘Foolish singer.  What is the difference, if you are the creator of their world?’ _

This time, Alissa curled into a ball.  She couldn’t shake his words, his amusement, his certainty.   _ No.  I am no god.  I claim no mantle of godhood. _  She repeated it, again and again.   _ He looked down at her.  ‘Mother.’ _

“No!”  Whimpers, shivers.  “Oh, Maker, what have I done?”  Her voice shrank to a whisper.  “What have I become?”  No more.  Research, study...but no more.  No Joinings - not that they had recruits.  No Awakenings.  Not until the echo of his amusement was out of her mind, until she could say to hazel eyes that it truly was different, and not just because she could.  Maker help her, she wasn’t even sure which hazel eyes she needed to convince.  A mangled, Tainted face, a beloved one topped with a shock of auburn hair.  Or her own.


	4. Chapter 4

    _‘How do you manage, without the words from your gods?’_

She considered his deep voice, ragged silk in her mind.  Idly wondered how hers sounded to him.  _‘We listen to each other, and do the best we can. Many follow the Chantry, a source of faith and strength across Thedas.  I have seen the Temple.  Faith has power, even if there are no words from the gods. _

_‘It is not enough!’_ His frustration thundered as he moved again, jerkily pacing.

    She stayed sitting, still and silent, watching him.

    _‘It is not enough, cannot be enough.  People need guidance.  They need to be led.’_

_‘Perhaps, perhaps not.  But it is all we have.’_


	5. Chapter 5

_ ‘Why do you call me little singer?’ _

__ _ ‘You still do not know?’ _

__ _ ‘I guess.  I am curious what you see.  You named me, I did not.’ _

__ A hint of a smile across torn and Tainted lips.  She did not shudder - she had seen it often enough.   _ ‘I did.’ _

__ _ ‘Why?’ _

__ _ ‘Those you hide from me, little singer.  It is your song that blocks my own.  It works, from this distance.  Why do you hide them?’ _

__ She narrowed her eyes, trying to not shiver...but knowing he still saw it, just as she saw his loneliness.   _ ‘I am sworn to protect.’ _

__ _ ‘You do not fear me.  Why hide them?’ _

__ She met his eyes again.   _ ‘Just because I do not fear you does not mean you aren’t dangerous.  I will risk myself.  I will not risk them.’ _

__ A husky chuckle, surprise in his eyes.   _ ‘No mortal, no one so close to human, has spoken to me like this since I took the mantle of priesthood and left humanity and family behind.’ _

__ _ ‘Then I am different.  Perhaps foolish.’ _

__ _ ‘Why, when I could crush your mind so easily?’ _

__ For a strange reason, this mattered to him.   _ ‘I don’t know that you could, or would.  Curiosity.  You say you left humanity behind, yet you feel loss, betrayal, anger...and surprise.  Perhaps humanity is not as narrow as your Empire held.’   _ That hit a nerve, but she continued.   _ ‘Plus, in the waking world, I am small and fragile.  I talk to many things that could crush my form.  Some few, possibly, my mind.  Besides, you have not tried.  Why not?’ _

__ A pause so long she thought he would not answer, that the dream would end.   _ ‘Because you do not fear me, perhaps.  Because you treat me as the man I once had been.’   _ His voice hardened.   _ ‘The man I cannot afford to be.  This world must be changed, and I will do so, now that I have found the means.  For the kindness and curiosity you have shown, I give you this warning.  Go, or join me.  Otherwise, I will have no choice but to crush you as well.’   _ A pause.   _ ‘And for some reason, I do not wish to.’ _

__ _ ‘I will not submit.’ _

__ _ ‘I know, little singer.’ _


End file.
